Emery County asks some to curtail water use as wildfire disrupts supply


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HUNTINGTON, Emery County — Hundreds of residents in northern Emery County are being asked to curtail their water use because a wildfire is impacting storage.

The springs that provide the water for residents in the North Emery Water Users Special Service District have been compromised by the Trail Mountain Fire, the county's sheriff's office announced on Facebook.

The wildfire had grown to 6,497 acres as of Tuesday afternoon, more than double its size one day before, and remained 10 percent contained, according to Rosann Fillmore, spokeswoman for Manti-La Sal National Forest.

The water supply for residents in the unincorporated town of Lawrence, and just outside the incorporated communities of Huntington, Cleveland and Elmo, is affected.

However, customers within the boundaries of those incorporated areas get their water from a different source and are not subject to the advisory, said Janalee Luke, Emery County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

About 515 people are being asked to conserve water as much as possible, Luke said. Their running water is safe, but the approximately 670,000-gallon supply from the springs their system uses is not being renewed, she said.

"You are being asked to conserve as no new water is being stored at this time," the sheriff's office told affected residents in a Facebook post.

County officials "don't see any need for (additional) water to be brought in at this time" to affected residents, Luke said, so long as water is widely conserved.

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